


She Was To Young

by Walkinthegarden



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, College, Died to young, Drunk Death, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Preventable death, young death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 07:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1680152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walkinthegarden/pseuds/Walkinthegarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JJ goes to visit the grave of a friend who didn't have to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Was To Young

Every year, JJ kisses her husband and son goodbye.

 

Every year, she requests the same day off.

 

Every year, she gets into her car on the 22nd of August, and drives home.

 

Her mother welcomes her with open arms and gives her a reassuring smile, allowing JJ to retreat to her bedroom. It remains untouched from when JJ was a teenager, the same Penn State flyers and Senior pictures. One picture in particular caught her eye. It was a photograph of her and her two best friends, right after graduation. JJ was in the middle, and standing next to her was a beautiful teenager with long red hair and dark brown eyes. The three of them were smiling with their arms wrapped around one another. Julia was the sister JJ had longed for after her own sister’s death. The two had been closer then blood and thicker then thieves. They had been so happy that day, so proud.

 

It was the last time anyone from town saw Julia alive.

 

The next morning JJ wakes early. She pulls on her boots and her raincoat and leaves her room, grabbing the flowers on the hall table she’d bought the night before. She takes her keys and drives to the town cemetery.

 

She spots her friends almost immediately. They are standing in a half circle around the small grave, and they greet her with open arms. JJ gladly walks into them, hugging each and every one of them before stepping forward to add her dozen roses to the pile of color.

 

“I’m sorry Julia,” JJ whispers, tears clouding her eyes as she looks at the grave of a girl forever young. She remembers the friend of her childhood, who laughed louder then all others, who loved her friends more then any could dare ask for, and who cried for you even when you didn’t have the strength to cry for yourself. She should still be alive, happy and healthy with a dozen children running about. Someone should have called an ambulance when she stumbled and fell down the stairs after one to many drinks. They shouldn’t have waited six hours to get her help.

 

She should still be alive.

 

If someone had just called 911.

**Author's Note:**

> Rachel, a girl a year older then me who went to my school, died her first week of college. While it is not known if she was drinking or not, it is believed she was. She fell down the stairs and while people looked after her, no one called 911. She went without any medical help for six hours. She died on the morning of August 23, 2013 after she was declared brain dead. 
> 
> It is very difficult to know the difference between a "sleep it off" drunken episode and when you need to take them to the hospital, but unless you are a doctor, take them to the hospital. Let them live another day. Be responsible for each other.


End file.
